Vivian turned out to be one of the key elements to the success of Dio. He became famous for his razor sharp guitar riffs, which made songs like "We Rock", "The Last In Line", and "Rainbow In The Dark" worldwide hits. Vivian recorded 3 albums with Dio: "Holy Diver", "The Last In Line" and "Sacred Heart", but in 1986 after the release of "Sacred Heart", Vivian could no longer take being under the heavy hand of Ronnie James Dio, and left Dio.
Vivian went back to Ireland and formed his own band called Trinity with drummer Pat Waller and bassist Davy Watson. In 1987, while still trying to get Trinity off the ground, Viv got the call from Whitesnake front man David Coverdale to appear in the all-star video "Still Of The Night" with other notable hard rock musicians like Rudy Sarzo, Tommy Aldridge, and Adrian Vandenberg. This was only supposed to be a video appearance but the band seemed to have chemistry, so this lineup turned into the permanent band.
Vivian toured with the band during this time. It turned out to be Whitesnake's most popular era. But when the time came for writing and recording a new album, Vivian was told that his songwriting skills were not needed since David Coverdale and Adrian Vandenberg were going to handle the writing. Not wanting to be another 'hired hand' like he was in Dio, Vivian decided to leave the band and join up with a few 'new kids' from California known as Riverdogs.
Vivian was giving their guitarist lessons at the time, and was helping them produce some demos, and was so impressed by them, that when the time came to make a decision between the world famous Whitesnake and the unknown Riverdogs, he chose the latter. The Riverdogs only released one official cd with Vivian, the self-titled "Riverdogs", but it's one that Vivian fans hold as a true gem. It shows a whole new side of Vivian with pop and blues flavored songs. This was a total contrast to his guitar-shredding Dio days.
Unfortunately, Riverdogs didn't make the biggest impact on the rock world, and because of major changes at their record company Epic Records, the Riverdogs soon found themselves without a recording contract. Vivian stuck it out for a little while, but soon realized that since being a guitarist was the only job he ever had, he had to make a living at it and soon left the band to join up with former Foreigner singer Lou Gramm in a new band called Shadow King.
Vivian met Lou when he played guitar on a few songs on Lou's second solo album "Long Hard Look". Shadow King, much like Riverdogs, only released one self titled album and didn't make a big splash in the rock world.
In 1992 Vivian got the call from heavy metal heroes Def Leppard to join the band after the death of one of their founding members, guitarist Steve Clark. Viv joined just after the recording of "Adrenilize" and made his first live appearance with the band at the Freddy Mercury Tribute concert "A Concert For Life" He has since recorded 3 cd's with Def Leppard: 1993's "Retro-Active", a collection of old Leppard B-sides, soundtrack songs, and a few re-recordings, "Slang" in 1996 and "Euphoria" in 1999.
After the Slang tour, while Def Leppard was on break, Vivian formed a side band in California called Clock with P.J. Smith on guitar, vocals and keyboards, Mark Schulman on drums, and Sascha Knutson on bass. Vivian contributed guitar as well as half of the lead vocals. Once again, Vivian shocked his fans by going off in another direction formerly unknown to him. Clock has a retro-pop sound with great melodies & harmonies.
In the 80's, Vivian was pigeonholed as a 'metal-shredder' guitarist, but it seems as though with every project he's done since Dio, he's been able to show another side of himself, and prove himself as a very talented and versatile musician.
